First World War centenary: Learning from the past

Few streets responded more enthusiastically than Lyon Street. It may have been home to only half-a-dozen tenements, but a quite remarkable number of men - 211, in fact - decided to enlist.

More than 100 were destined to see action with the Highland Light Infantry (HLI), which organised three service battalions in the city.

One of the HLI volunteers was John Galloway, from 9 Lyon Street; he died on March 14, 1916, and is buried at Loos cemetery in France. From number eight came Peter Kelly, also HLI. He died on July 1, the first day of the Somme. Samuel Scott, from number 20, served with the Cameronians (the Scottish Rifles); he died on May 3, 1917, and is buried at Arras.

In all, 16 of the 211 men from Lyon Street died in action on the Western Front. Another 27 were wounded. Two others were listed as missing on a simple Roll of Honour that was subsequently put together by local people.

The dedication and the sacrifice of these men is one of the stories highlighted in a fascinating website, www.firstworldwarglasgow.co.uk, which collates striking tales from the Western Front and the Home Front alike.

Particularly interesting is the section devoted to the Glasgow soldiers who earned the Victoria Cross (VC).

The first Glasgow-born recipient was Harry Ranken, a Maryhill boy who grew up in Irvine, where his father was a minister. He went on to study medicine and surgery at Glasgow University, where he won several prizes.

He then became part of the Royal Army Medical Corps, where he won further prizes for his work in hygiene, and military and tropical medicine.

When war broke out, he volunteered for service with the 1st battalion, the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

Ranken was always the kind of man who put other men's lives ahead of his own. In September 1914 there was a shell attack at Haute-Avesnes. Ranken's own leg was almost severed - by, it emerged, a British shell - but he insisted on tending to the wounded before allowing himself to be seen to.

His leg was eventually amputated, but he later died of a blood clot. His death was a sore loss to the world of medicine. In Irvine today, his name is commemorated by two streets - Ranken Crescent and Ranken Drive.

The Glasgow website is also at pains to focus on life on the Home Front and on the crucial roles that were occupied by women in the absence of so many of the city's menfolk.

Women worked in fire-houses, on trams and in shipyards. In 1915, Glasgow Corporation Tramways employed the first two female tram conductors in Britain.

Such were the incessant demands of Britain's war machine that, by 1916, according to the Ministry of Munitions, Clydeside's metal trades factories were employing no fewer than 18,500 women. By war's end, it was estimated that there were 65,000 women in Clydeside's munitions factories. It is no surprise, in hindsight, that the First World War should have changed women's role in the workplace forever.

Women performed heroics on the battlefield, too. Partick-born Kate Carruthers - who, with her twin sister, Margaret, was called up as a nurse - was in 1916 among the first to receive the Medical Medal.

In an aircraft raid on No 56 Casualty Clearing Station, many patients were killed, but Kate stayed on duty for a further 24 hours despite herself having wounds to her head and leg.

The website also touches on Glasgow's fine radical traditions and on the role of such women as Mary Barbour, who in November 1915 led "Mrs Barbour's Army" on a march on the sheriff courts in protest at one profiteering landlord's attempt to force 18 evictions.

In addition to all of this, the comprehensive website has a section whereby anyone can submit stories, photographs or letters to what is already a fast-growing database of Glasgow's experience of 1914-1918.

How did it start? The city's Lord Provost, councillor Sadie Docherty, has been leading the commemorations for the centenary of the First World War.

She and her office had set up an officer group comprising such council departments as Development & Regeneration Services (DRS) plus City Building and Glasgow Life to co-ordinate the First World War activities.

The DRS heritage team received a £77,500 Heritage Lottery Fund grant for a project called Their Names Liveth For Evermore - Glasgow 1914-2014.

The money allowed Glasgow to create a database of First World War stories as well as an education programme to encourage school- children to learn about the names behind the war memorials in their local areas.

The Lord Provost decided to have just one Glasgow website to ensure that the city could speak with one voice about what was happening in Glasgow for the First World War commemorations and to ensure that stories were collected and preserved. "The First World War was a turning point in world history," Mrs Docherty said. "One hundred years on, we are all connected to the First World War, either through our own family history, the heritage of our local communities or because of its long-term impact on society and the world we live in today.

"Some 200,000 Glaswegians went to war, 18,000 of whom never returned. Glasgow, in common with villages, towns and cities throughout the world, was never the same again.

"The First World War project and website is an opportunity for us to engage with Glaswegians, in particular our young people, on Glasgow's contribution to the conflict.

"We want to collect the city's war stories, both from the Home Front and front line, over the coming four years to ensure they are passed on and remembered as a living legacy of our city's men and women.

"I am very clear that as Glasgow's new brand emphasises - People Make Glasgow - we must also recognise and remember our past citizens who have helped make Glasgow what it is today.

"As Lord Provost, I have the honour to lead our city's First World War project.

"I have met with families of Glaswegians who fought in the First World War, met amateur historians helping to protect our city's war history and visited schools taking part in the Their Names Liveth For Evermore project to learn about the stories behind names on memorials in our city.

"We hope that Glasgow's First World War website will inspire and encourage everyone to discover the stories of ordinary Glaswegians and add their own family history to our database."

www.firstworldwarglasgow.co.uk